Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.

"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
  -- Daniel Webster



Wednesday, August 26, 2009 :::
 

VDH noticed the other day that
[t]here is a reasonable worry voiced by Jonathan Chait in The New Republic about right-wing, over-the-top rhetoric, and its deleterious effects on the health-care debate, and he references inter alia Rick Perlstein for support. But the essay should become the locus classicus for the problem with all this sudden liberal angst as President Obama's polls dive.


It was Jonathan Chait himself who wrote a 2003 essay, "The Case For Bush Hatred: Mad About You" that began with the inflamatory "I hate President George W. Bush," a piece that became emblematic of a visceral furor that in those years did much to poison politics.


And Rick Perlstein? I think he was the same author of a Village Voice article about Bush sucking American democracy dry, accompanied by a creepy cartoon picture of President Bush as a hideous vampire with his bloody fangs on the exposed neck of the Statue of Liberty (on the level with much of the blood-libel pop art in the Arab world directed at Israel).
A few other stories are flying below the radar screen:I remember after McVeigh bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City that Bill Clinton, among others, pointed to rhetoric by (for example) Rush Limbaugh. I don't think that made sense, any more than it would make sense to blame these acts (and/or the assault of the conservative activist by SEIU members last month) on Obama's vilification of the right. So I won't blame him for that, but I can still point out the double standard.

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::: posted by Steven at 12:08 AM


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Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.


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